College Application Essays

I wrote a little bit about my experience with workshop at the Iowa Young Writers' Studio and how it transformed my relationship with writing and writers. I can share if contacted.

Supplemental Essay: “Why us” school essay

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Michigan and Columbia asked for why essays.

Supplemental Essay: Diversity statement

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Michigan and UCs asked for statements on "world you come from" or "describe a community you come from and your place in it."

Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school

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Most schools asked for statements on "what areas of study/major you plan to pursue and why?" and "discuss or elaborate on your most meaningful extracurricular activity."

Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school

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UVA asked for one essay on a meaningful work of literature, art, etc. and one essay chosen from a prompt. I wrote about Catullus 64 and the value of Latin in my life, and I picked the Flash Seminar prompt and wrote about my senior thesis/TASP.

Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school

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Princeton and Columbia asked for lists of various things. I kept the lists to about 6-8 items per list for Columbia's book/media lists. Princeton asked for favorites. I'll share my lists, but honestly you can write just about anything in these as long as they're non-offensive and show a little bit of maturity. Not the time to write cutesy descriptions or explanations after each item too (ex. favorite food: ramen!!! :) :) so yum!). Let yourself come through but in a...

Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school

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Princeton asked for a long essay chosen from a prompt. I picked the culture prompt. I reused this essay or excerpts of it for virtually every school. I wrote about classics and tied it into my community and background.

Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school

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For the Additional Information section on the Common App, I elaborated on five of my extracurricular activities in greater depth.

***I WILL SHARE ANY/ALL ESSAYS (15+ in a single Google doc)!!!*** I'm only using descriptions here because the boxes won't allow me to copy/paste and I tend to write until the word limit stops me. My essays are written in a pretty straightforward style, and I basically kept the topics to creative writing, classics, my senior thesis, and TASP. I reused a lot of essays or excerpts from my essays for different schools, as most people do/should do....

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College Admissions Advice

What I’d change about my application process

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The normal advice is to start early. I think that's a good general rule of thumb. And not just for actually filling out applications and writing responses to essays, but really, the earlier you can start just kind of thinking about college and an admissions "strategy," the better. By that I don't mean, as a freshman you should stress out about your chances, plan out the next four years of your life in great depth down to the APs you'll take, get a College Confidential account, and latch onto a dream school. But it's great to set some loose goals...

List of schools I interviewed with and my interview experience

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I interviewed with with Pomona, Princeton, Harvard, and Yale. I didn't receive an interview with Columbia or any of the state schools. Good standard tips for an interview include: communicate professionally when setting up the interview, dress nicely and look presentable (what you should wear depends on the setting of the interview), have an excellent and specific answer prepared for "why x university," prepare thoughtful questions to ask your interviewer, and absolutely send a thank you note over email within a day or two after the interview. Good questions to ask your interviewer could include questions about the culture of...

Recommended summer activities during high school and college

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What I did during my summers, I think, made a really, really crucial difference in my application. I'm a huge advocate of having a productive summer, which doesn't mean that you should work non-stop and not relax. A productive summer to me means that you find something meaningful to do for at least some part of the summer. It doesn't have to be expensive summer programs or travel and especially not those white savior community service trips out to developing country. It can be a part-time job, taking a MOOC or two on Coursera or edX, starting a vlog about...

What set me apart from other applicants

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The common wisdom is that there are basically two approaches to selective admissions for non-recruited, non-"hooked" students ("hooks" include underrepresented minorities, legacy, VIP, recruited athlete, etc)--1) "well-rounded" (strong across the board, excels in every subject/activity) and 2) "pointy" (very accomplished in one area, but weaker in others). (Funnily enough, a Stanford admissions officer wrote that they look for "T-shaped" students who are both well-rounded and extremely accomplished in one area. Of course, Stanford.) All approaches, including the hooks mentioned above, are equally important and valid. Colleges want to build a well-rounded class full of people with diverse interests...

Why I ultimately chose my school

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Princeton was never my absolute, 100% dream school. And honestly, I am so grateful that I did not have a dream school and maybe others will disagree, but one of my biggest pieces of advice is to divorce yourself from the idea of a dream school. I have friends who for four years fixated on the idea of attending one school, and when they weren't admitted, it was a...

How I chose schools to apply to

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With my first few lists, I definitely picked a lot of schools based on their prestige, which resulted in a very confused list (and college counselor). I didn't make any visits and kind of just based my list off things ranging from...

My advice about getting recommenders

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For recommendations, absolutely pick the people who know you the best and can speak the best to your qualities that you want to get across to the admissions officers. I am personally not the strongest STEM student. I'm pretty quiet in class, work hard and do okay in their subjects, but am definitely not a standout...

Additional material sent in after waitlisted or deferred

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Just about additional material in general. I asked my college counselor whether to send creative writing supplements to colleges, because at that point I had amassed a decent portfolio of writing and writing is such a big focus of my application. She told me not...

Whether I used a private admissions counselor, and advice I received

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I did not use a private admissions counselor. My school provides excellent college counselors, I got along so well with mine, and just felt that a second admissions counselor would have just been way too much. I had friends who did use private college counselors, and some felt that it was absolutely necessary because...

Why I declined other schools

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I chose Princeton as a matter of fit and parental pressure. It really came down to...

Post-college plans

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My post-college plans are still up in the air a little bit. My friends are heavily pre-professional, though, and I think they've been really successful sort of angling everything towards their future vocations. They've...

Reaching out to professors and coaches at schools I applied to

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I can speak a little bit about recruitment for creative writing for Penn and Columbia. For a long time, Penn was my first choice because of the Kelly Writers House, a unique program at Penn that fosters a writing culture and supports writers on campus. KWH recruits talented seniors by passing on letters of advocacy (as a coach might...

Did you take a gap year? Tell us about your experience.

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I did take a gap year! Princeton offers a program called the Bridge Year Program, a free, nine-month service learning program in one of five countries abroad. I spent my nine months in Bolivia with six other Princeton incoming freshmen, where I...